There are certain words that I love. They resonate with me and I believe they are a part of my DNA.
IMAGINE is one of those words. I love it so much that IT actually found me in a store years ago. I was just looking around with a friend, wasting time and saw a pile of polished stones in a basket. I love polished stones. The smooth texture and the colours attract me to them. As I started to pick them up, I noticed that there were different words engraved on each one. After seeing a few of them, one stood out. IMAGINE was embossed in gold print.
Imagine my delight when I saw that. It was a green stone with the word IMAGINE on it. Imagine that; my favorite colour and word. Wow. Of course I bought it and to this day I keep it close by.
If you’ve followed my blog from the very beginning you will know this; I love music. My favorite song in the whole wide world is believe it or not, IMAGINE by John Lennon. I have heard many different people sing it and if they really get it, it is amazing!
So, with it being my favorite song and one of my very favorite words it only makes sense that I write about IMAGINE and imagination, right? Right.
I am drawn to people that have a great imagination, with kids being at the top of the imagination mountain. I love sharing my imagination with kids and love getting insight into theirs. What a cool place to visit.
We are all born with great imaginations. As we age, the imagination starts to dissolve but it doesn’t have to. You can be a grown up and retain that fun, unique part of yourself if you want to. I recently heard that we only use about 5 percent of our brain’s capabilities. It saddens me to wonder how much of the untouched 95 percent is our imagination.
When we were kids, we had imaginary friends but as we aged, the friends reluctantly disappeared to another place. Where did they go? Who knows, maybe to a great land of unending fun fun fun. Maybe they are just waiting for you to show up and re-connect.
I remember my imaginary friend. His or her name was GOOGI. I didn’t know the sex or age of my playmate or where the crazy name came from or how long this Googi was in my life but I do remember once giving Googi a small piece of uncooked ground beef that my mom was forming into burgers. I’m surprised that I lived to tell the tale. I guess that was my one and only adventure with steak tartare. Maybe that’s the day that Googi became unreal to me and went away.
I may have said good-bye to my imaginary friend but I have never said good-bye to my imagination and would never want to. It is what helps me create everything I have, personally and professionally. I’m convinced that my dog thinks I’m crazy but in a very good, fun way with the dances and silly songs that I have made up just for her.
Imagination is the gift that allows you to bring whatever you want into reality. It can be used in a positive way to create magnificent, beautiful things that can inspire others to use their imaginations. It can also be misused in a negative way to create worry, doubt and horrific outcomes into your life or the lives of others. Arguments and wars have been started due to someone’s imagination being filled with fear about another person, group of people or country. What a terrible waste of the gift of imagination. Is your imagination friend or foe?
At one time, someone had to imagine and then prove that the world was actually round and not flat as had been blindly accepted. Someone also had to imagine that the huge white circle in the sky known as the moon was more than an optical illusion or a mysterious unknown object. Those imagined thoughts brought about a curiosity of possibilities that led to the creation of a rocket ship that was needed to travel there.
More recently instead of having a footman or in more modern times, a postal worker, deliver messages created by an ink dipped quill which evolved through imagination into a pen, a message can now be sent via invisible whatevers (excuse my lack of technological insight) to anywhere in the world within a few seconds of pressing a send button. However it’s done, it’s really cool or perhaps regrettable depending on the message. HA HA! Could you imagine trying to explain that concept to a 19th century farmer?
Imagine what we on planet earth would do if we found out that there was life on another planet that wanted to take over or completely destroy our planet. Would we 7 billion inhabitants finally come together as one to fight them off? I wonder if we would we put our assumed differences away and bring our similarities to the forefront to battle the ”Planet Foreigners” trying to destroy our home, planet earth and thereby, us? Ah, ya, I think we would!!
Are you getting the best of your imagination or is your imagination getting the best of you?
Dog days of summer? I and apparently my dog as well never really understood what “The Dog Days of Summer” were or how many days were given to man’s best friend? A couple? A week? 10? Who knows? It’s one of the great mysteries of life, I guess.
What did you like to do for fun when you were 5 or 6? Did you create artistic masterpieces that were then put on the fridge? Did you make up silly songs or create stories or plays that were then performed for anyone who would attend? Did you make up games or have adventures to keep you and your friends entertained outside until the street lights came on and you reluctantly went in for the night?